A fellow colleague at my company started a website powered by the eve
community a while ago.  Recently I found that some anonymous poster
had libeled me on this site in a very serious and malicious manner.  I
have done much research into libel and legal issues so I know this is
a solid case.

I asked this person to research for me the IP address but it became
very clear that he was directly involved with this libeler- i.e. it is
himself or a close friend- so he refused to release anything.

How do I contact the Eve Community and what rights and time limits do
I have to obtain the IP address on my own especially if the owner of
the website who subscribes to the service may be the one who comitted
the libel?

First, no one has to provide you anything UNLESS you have a court
order.  This means probably getting an attorney.  If you sue etc. what
are your damages?
One way to handle this is to ignore it.

Daniel2d has a good point. Unless you are famous libel is not really
that serious or bothersome.

However in order to get the IP you would need to look at logs on the
file server. The best place to get access to those logs would be to
talk to the admin or the server owner directly. If that is EVE talk to
them, if your friend is the owner you are going to have a tough time
:D

usrhlp